8 Board Games for Video Gamers
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Zombicide was featured on Wil Wheaton's G&S show 'Tabletop' just last week. Lords of Waterdeep was on it last season, umm... I think Patrick Rothefuss was on that one, instead of writing day 3; but I digress. I received the D&D boardgame Wrath of Ashardalon recently & that's been a blast with teenage kids.
This is a strange new world i have gazed into. Full of mystery and bewilderment. That 'Mage Knight' looks especially intimidating to thine virgin eye.
Doesn't this hobby require friendship of some variation? The single player options may only serve to highlight such crushing feelings of isolation.
Although Alpha pr Omega Protocol appears quite attractive to my currently-loving-Xcom brain lumps.
Doesn't this hobby require friendship of some variation? The single player options may only serve to highlight such crushing feelings of isolation.
Although
Boss Monster is a fun little game. You are actively making your dungeon tempting to adventurers, making sure it is deadly enough to take on those adventurers, and trying your hardest to stab the other bosses in the back so you can get those tasty souls. It isn't required to get the small expansion (coming in a case modeled off a gameboy video game cartridge box like the main game comes in a box designed around the old NES game cartridge box) but it does add a new element to the gameplay and makes it quite enjoyable.
Zombicide has a god awful mechanic that is almost universally hated, if you shoot into a room full of zombies with a survivor in the same zone, you must shoot the survivor first. No matter what firearm you are using. It does do a gradual build up of zombies well to really get a swarm going and the minis are well made too.
Lords of Waterdeep is not a bad Dungeon and Dragons game, but the three tile based exploration games are much better and offer a solid solo player component too. Pathfinder is a great game, but pricey as all hades to get a complete game out of (5 adventure decks at 20 bucks, the character add-on deck for 20 bucks, the base game with the first adventure for 50 bucks, total price is 170 plus tax and shipping). I would recommend Marvel Legendary even though it has a longer set-up and tear down time for a better priced game and it has solo playing capabilities as well.
Mage Knight is solid, but I can't play it much because it takes a long time to set up, a long time to play, and it demands that my table be about five times the size that it is. I have played it twice and loved each gaming session but it is such a chore to set up and get to fit on a table I cannot recommend it to anybody personally.
Zombicide has a god awful mechanic that is almost universally hated, if you shoot into a room full of zombies with a survivor in the same zone, you must shoot the survivor first. No matter what firearm you are using. It does do a gradual build up of zombies well to really get a swarm going and the minis are well made too.
Lords of Waterdeep is not a bad Dungeon and Dragons game, but the three tile based exploration games are much better and offer a solid solo player component too. Pathfinder is a great game, but pricey as all hades to get a complete game out of (5 adventure decks at 20 bucks, the character add-on deck for 20 bucks, the base game with the first adventure for 50 bucks, total price is 170 plus tax and shipping). I would recommend Marvel Legendary even though it has a longer set-up and tear down time for a better priced game and it has solo playing capabilities as well.
Mage Knight is solid, but I can't play it much because it takes a long time to set up, a long time to play, and it demands that my table be about five times the size that it is. I have played it twice and loved each gaming session but it is such a chore to set up and get to fit on a table I cannot recommend it to anybody personally.
I've got a few games I can recommend, my family and friends have had a blast with these.
I should note that we have only beaten Elder Sign once, and that, after a while, Pandemic gets a bit easy until you've gotten the Expansions, which add a whole slew of new stuff. The In The Lab expansion adds a new way of creating Cures and the On The Brink expansion adds new challenges.
Legendary also has a couple Expansions, and also has a Villain version where you play as the Villains fighting against the Heroes, with the same gameplay.
7 Wonders has some expansions as well, adding in new rules, cards, and Civilizations.
Elder Sign also has a couple expansions, but we find it challenging enough so far with just the base game.
Star Realms just released their Crisis expansion, which adds new cards to the game, however, you don't have to get all the cards at once if you don't want to. Each new type of cards is sold in $5 card packs, so if you only want one new type of cards, or can only afford one new type at that moment, you can only buy just what you want/can afford.
Take control of one of the 7 Ancient Civilizations that built one of the great Wonders of the Ancient World and build your empire.
Each game is played in 3 "Ages", and after every Age, war between bordering Civilizations breaks out.
In the beginning of each Age, each player is dealt a hand of 7 cards from the appropriate deck, from these cards every player picks 1 card to play, places it face down in front of them, and then passes on their remaining hand Clockwise (Ages I and III) or Counter-clockwise (Age II).
During the first 2 Ages, you can acquire Resource cards, during the 3rd and final Age, no Resource cards will be available.
If your Civilization lacks the resources to build something, but your neighbor has what you need, you may buy it from them. You can only trade with Civilizations you border, however, and if neither of your neighbors have what you need, you're screwed.
Through Science, Military Might, Economy, Culture, Guilds, and your Wonder you acquire Victory points, and at the end of the game the player with the most Victory Points wins.
Each game is played in 3 "Ages", and after every Age, war between bordering Civilizations breaks out.
In the beginning of each Age, each player is dealt a hand of 7 cards from the appropriate deck, from these cards every player picks 1 card to play, places it face down in front of them, and then passes on their remaining hand Clockwise (Ages I and III) or Counter-clockwise (Age II).
During the first 2 Ages, you can acquire Resource cards, during the 3rd and final Age, no Resource cards will be available.
If your Civilization lacks the resources to build something, but your neighbor has what you need, you may buy it from them. You can only trade with Civilizations you border, however, and if neither of your neighbors have what you need, you're screwed.
Through Science, Military Might, Economy, Culture, Guilds, and your Wonder you acquire Victory points, and at the end of the game the player with the most Victory Points wins.
You and 3 other players are a team of CDC agents who travel the world trying to find cures for 4 different plagues that are threatening the world.
Pick a role, move around the board, and pray you don't draw an Epidemic, this game is completely cooperative (With exception to the Bio-Terrorist mode in the On the Brink expansion), and you either all win or you all lose.
Each turn you draw cards from the Player Deck, these cards are your resources, you need these to find cures, build Research Stations, and travel quickly around the world, so use them wisely.
The game ends when 8 Outbreaks happen, you run out of cards in the Player Deck, or one Plague has no more disease cubes in the stock and more need to be placed.
Pick a role, move around the board, and pray you don't draw an Epidemic, this game is completely cooperative (With exception to the Bio-Terrorist mode in the On the Brink expansion), and you either all win or you all lose.
Each turn you draw cards from the Player Deck, these cards are your resources, you need these to find cures, build Research Stations, and travel quickly around the world, so use them wisely.
The game ends when 8 Outbreaks happen, you run out of cards in the Player Deck, or one Plague has no more disease cubes in the stock and more need to be placed.
Another cooperative game, does take a little while to set up.
Based off of the Marvel Universe, you and your teammates are trying to stop a Marvel Mastermind from carrying out his Scheme!
Out of all the Heroes, pick 5, shuffle them together, and play 5 into the HQ. Then you pick 3 Villians and 2 Henchmen, add in any Bystanders, Master Strikes, and Scheme Twists.
The goal of the game is to defeat the Mastermind by attacking him 4 times, you do this by recruiting Marvel Heroes into your deck and defeating villains and henchmen as they try to carry out their Scheme.
Heroes can synergize with each other, but it depends on their type, however, it should be kept in mind at all times that the order you play your cards in matters.
The Scheme sets the conditions for your loss, and what happens when a Scheme Twist is drawn, and each Mastermind has a different Master Strike.
Every turn a Villain enters the city, and only 5 villains can be in the city at once, if another one enters the city then the oldest Villain escapes! This can be good, or bad, depending on the Villain, some have effects that activate when they're drawn, others take place when they escape, or when you fight them. Depending on your Scheme, sometimes it's best to let a Villain escape than to fight him.
You win by beating the Mastermind, you lose if the Hero or Villain deck runs out, or if the Loss condition for your Scheme has been achieved.
Based off of the Marvel Universe, you and your teammates are trying to stop a Marvel Mastermind from carrying out his Scheme!
Out of all the Heroes, pick 5, shuffle them together, and play 5 into the HQ. Then you pick 3 Villians and 2 Henchmen, add in any Bystanders, Master Strikes, and Scheme Twists.
The goal of the game is to defeat the Mastermind by attacking him 4 times, you do this by recruiting Marvel Heroes into your deck and defeating villains and henchmen as they try to carry out their Scheme.
Heroes can synergize with each other, but it depends on their type, however, it should be kept in mind at all times that the order you play your cards in matters.
The Scheme sets the conditions for your loss, and what happens when a Scheme Twist is drawn, and each Mastermind has a different Master Strike.
Every turn a Villain enters the city, and only 5 villains can be in the city at once, if another one enters the city then the oldest Villain escapes! This can be good, or bad, depending on the Villain, some have effects that activate when they're drawn, others take place when they escape, or when you fight them. Depending on your Scheme, sometimes it's best to let a Villain escape than to fight him.
You win by beating the Mastermind, you lose if the Hero or Villain deck runs out, or if the Loss condition for your Scheme has been achieved.
Another deck-building game, easy to start up, quick to learn, easy to play.
Two player game, however you can combine multiple decks to increase the player count.
The two of you start with 50 Authority (HP) and a small deck containing Scouts and Vipers, Scouts give you Money to buy ships and bases, while Vipers give you Attack.
The goal is to buy cards from the Trade Row to build up your deck and defeat your opponent, but ALL players buy from the same Trade Row, so it becomes a game of denial sometimes in terms of what to buy. When your deck runs out, simply shuffle and draw to your hand limit.
There are 4 factions, and they only synergize with themselves, so it's easier to create combos than in Legendary as Order does not matter 99% of the time. There are scenarios where it does matter, but only if you've built and then draw yourself into that scenario.
Two player game, however you can combine multiple decks to increase the player count.
The two of you start with 50 Authority (HP) and a small deck containing Scouts and Vipers, Scouts give you Money to buy ships and bases, while Vipers give you Attack.
The goal is to buy cards from the Trade Row to build up your deck and defeat your opponent, but ALL players buy from the same Trade Row, so it becomes a game of denial sometimes in terms of what to buy. When your deck runs out, simply shuffle and draw to your hand limit.
There are 4 factions, and they only synergize with themselves, so it's easier to create combos than in Legendary as Order does not matter 99% of the time. There are scenarios where it does matter, but only if you've built and then draw yourself into that scenario.
Cooperative game, takes a little bit to set up because there's lots of little bits.
You are a team of investigators that have wandered into a Lovecraftian horror plot.
An Elder God is awakening and it's up to you to gather the Elder Signs and re-seal them away, but beware! Midnight brings new horrors into play. Each Investigator has their own abilities, Stamina and Sanity, and starting items and spells.
On your turn you have a choice of 6 different "Adventures" to take on, each Adventure has a requirement to complete it, and it's up to you to roll the dice and hope Lady Luck is on your side. You will need to match the symbols on the die to the symbols on the Adventure card, but you may only complete 1 "task" at a time, and sometimes you have to go in order.
If you fail, you take a penalty, usually a hit to your Sanity and/or Stamina, but sometimes Monsters appear and sometimes Doom Tokens are added onto the Doom Track. If you succeed, congratulations! You get the reward(s) for completing the Adventure and then get it as a Trophy, which can be spent at the Entrance for various things.
The goal of the game is to acquire enough Elder Signs through Adventures to seal away whichever Old One is trying to awaken.
After every turn the clock advances 3 hours, and when it hits 12 it's a new day, and a new Mythos card is drawn. Monsters may appear, but you may also get beneficial effects, or more Doom Tokens.
Should you run out of Stamina or Sanity you are "Consumed", your Investigator dies and you lose all items and Clue Tokens you carried, but that does not take you out of the game. Pick up a new Investigator and try again!
If your Old One awakens before you gather enough Elder Signs, all is not lost just yet, you still have a chance to seal it away again, but it attacks every new day, and if it kills you, you're out of the game.
You are a team of investigators that have wandered into a Lovecraftian horror plot.
An Elder God is awakening and it's up to you to gather the Elder Signs and re-seal them away, but beware! Midnight brings new horrors into play. Each Investigator has their own abilities, Stamina and Sanity, and starting items and spells.
On your turn you have a choice of 6 different "Adventures" to take on, each Adventure has a requirement to complete it, and it's up to you to roll the dice and hope Lady Luck is on your side. You will need to match the symbols on the die to the symbols on the Adventure card, but you may only complete 1 "task" at a time, and sometimes you have to go in order.
If you fail, you take a penalty, usually a hit to your Sanity and/or Stamina, but sometimes Monsters appear and sometimes Doom Tokens are added onto the Doom Track. If you succeed, congratulations! You get the reward(s) for completing the Adventure and then get it as a Trophy, which can be spent at the Entrance for various things.
The goal of the game is to acquire enough Elder Signs through Adventures to seal away whichever Old One is trying to awaken.
After every turn the clock advances 3 hours, and when it hits 12 it's a new day, and a new Mythos card is drawn. Monsters may appear, but you may also get beneficial effects, or more Doom Tokens.
Should you run out of Stamina or Sanity you are "Consumed", your Investigator dies and you lose all items and Clue Tokens you carried, but that does not take you out of the game. Pick up a new Investigator and try again!
If your Old One awakens before you gather enough Elder Signs, all is not lost just yet, you still have a chance to seal it away again, but it attacks every new day, and if it kills you, you're out of the game.
I should note that we have only beaten Elder Sign once, and that, after a while, Pandemic gets a bit easy until you've gotten the Expansions, which add a whole slew of new stuff. The In The Lab expansion adds a new way of creating Cures and the On The Brink expansion adds new challenges.
Legendary also has a couple Expansions, and also has a Villain version where you play as the Villains fighting against the Heroes, with the same gameplay.
7 Wonders has some expansions as well, adding in new rules, cards, and Civilizations.
Elder Sign also has a couple expansions, but we find it challenging enough so far with just the base game.
Star Realms just released their Crisis expansion, which adds new cards to the game, however, you don't have to get all the cards at once if you don't want to. Each new type of cards is sold in $5 card packs, so if you only want one new type of cards, or can only afford one new type at that moment, you can only buy just what you want/can afford.
The purpose of this rule is very simple: if you shoot an ally, you have to own it, 100%. You can't pretend it's not your fault that your dice came up snake eyes and got him killed - if you fire your gun into a mob with your ally at its centre, you and everyone else knows that you have decided they are beyond saving.Flamespeak said:
TLDR: I like this rule because friendly fire should never come down to RNG in a co-op game.
I absolutely love Pathfinder ACG. It's a really good way of turning a pen and paper style game to a smaller bitesize version that is episodic.
The only gripe is that it is quite expensive. It needs a shed load of cards, which jacks the price up some, but if you have a keen bunch of mates it would be easy to chip in!
Also... if you do look into it... make sure you get the character expansion too! The characters in there are awesome! (I love playing as Sajan so much!)
The only gripe is that it is quite expensive. It needs a shed load of cards, which jacks the price up some, but if you have a keen bunch of mates it would be easy to chip in!
Also... if you do look into it... make sure you get the character expansion too! The characters in there are awesome! (I love playing as Sajan so much!)
I've been playing Pathfinder: ACG for over a year now with my family. It's absolutely fantastic as well as a great way to get people into D&D style gameplay, without them feeling like they need to wear funny hats and hide in a basement (I asked my brother if he wanted to play D&D and that was the reason he said no at first. Once he heard we were essentially playing a CCG he was happy to go all in).
Character creation takes about a minute, and every rule of the game is more or less explained on their respective cards. Even if you don't understand or misinterpret a rule the game doesn't break, meaning that an inexperienced group can play through multiple campaigns without screwing up the game. You can even play the game single player, although it gets exponentially more fun the more people in the party (with expansions it can go up to 6 players). What comes in the box is fun but rather basic, so I would highly encourage buying the relatively cheap expansions at $10-15 a pop. Each one ramps up the difficulty, the loot, and fun/bizarre rules unique to that campaign (like infinite zombie hordes, king of the hill, racing against time at a time warping clock tower, etc).
Character creation takes about a minute, and every rule of the game is more or less explained on their respective cards. Even if you don't understand or misinterpret a rule the game doesn't break, meaning that an inexperienced group can play through multiple campaigns without screwing up the game. You can even play the game single player, although it gets exponentially more fun the more people in the party (with expansions it can go up to 6 players). What comes in the box is fun but rather basic, so I would highly encourage buying the relatively cheap expansions at $10-15 a pop. Each one ramps up the difficulty, the loot, and fun/bizarre rules unique to that campaign (like infinite zombie hordes, king of the hill, racing against time at a time warping clock tower, etc).
Another one that didn't make the list that is quite fun is Dungeon.
Essentially, it's a dungeon crawl on a board. As you gain levels, you can venture deeper into the dungeon and take on harder challenges. Combat is done with dice, and the winner is the player who gets the most treasure back to the dungeon entrance.
It's simple, easy to set up, and doesn't take all night to play. Currently using it as a gateway drug to bring son into the D&D fold.
Essentially, it's a dungeon crawl on a board. As you gain levels, you can venture deeper into the dungeon and take on harder challenges. Combat is done with dice, and the winner is the player who gets the most treasure back to the dungeon entrance.
It's simple, easy to set up, and doesn't take all night to play. Currently using it as a gateway drug to bring son into the D&D fold.
We do not, as a rule, feature out of print games in reviews or recommendation articles. It's mean to tease people with what they can't have.XanCo said:Where's the love for Titan? I know it's out of print but dammit if that's not a great board game! Nothing like a game about battling armies of monsters against each other in various terrains and trying to recruit the best army!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titan_(game)
This is why I was so happy that Letters from Whitechapel is back in print again. I really wanted to feature that.JonB said:We do not, as a rule, feature out of print games in reviews or recommendation articles. It's mean to tease people with what they can't have.
I see a lack of "Arkham Horror" in this list.
Side note; do NOT play Twilight Imperium unless you have the whole day to waste or you can 'save' the board state. It's bloody long.
Side note; do NOT play Twilight Imperium unless you have the whole day to waste or you can 'save' the board state. It's bloody long.
No, it really doesn't. It does, however, sound exactly like the plot of Master of Orion, as well as pretty much every space 4X game made since then. It's a bit odd really, it seems everyone thinks that just because they're making a game in the same genre as MOO, they have to use the same plot as well. Even Sins did it, and that's not even a 4X game at all, it just frequently gets mistaken for one.ffronw said:
How does this compare to Space Crusade? The basic idea sounds very similar, just without the Warhammer trappings.